Originally Posted by
emma69
I think there are a few, myself included, on this thread who have worked in the service industry in places outside of North America, and it is a touch insulting to suggest that a non-tipping environment results in Burger King type service. Thousands of servers work every day without any tips, from family dining, through to Michelin starred restaurants across the world. And I certainly never ran at a bare bones level (odd days of staff sickness aside).
Didn't mean to insult. But, I will ask, how often do you get good customer service from someone that has a job paying near minimum wage (in the US)? I'm not saying it'll NEVER happen, but the likelihood is much lower than if someone had the skill set for job paying around $20 an hour or better. Same reason you get better service at Morton's than Applebee's. The servers make more money at Morton's so the cream rises to the top.
Originally Posted by
emma69
In terms of managing money, I've been in jobs where I get the money when I do the work (freelance teaching for example) and where I get a monthly pay check, and various weekly / bi-weekly methods in between. You soon adjust to it, it just becomes the norm. I personally wouldn't care if I got paid the same day, or bi-weekly, after all my biggest bills (mortgage etc) are not daily.
I meant to bring up the point that the "instant gratification" of the job is a perk that can't be made up for by going to a paycheck system. Let's say I get a flat tire and have to shell out a couple hundred bucks to pay for a new one. Let's say that eats up a good chunk of my liquid cash. (And that isn't a pun for drinking, but very well may be for some
) The perk of my job now is that I can pick up a dinner shift the next night and make a good chunk of that money back. If we went to a non-tipping paycheck system and I didn't get any of that money until ten days later, that'd be one perk down the toilet for me.
Also, one of the perks of only getting paid $3 an hour is that my employer doesn't care THAT much about overtime. When I work more than forty hours, I get something like $5.50 an hour (it's a different calculation than straight time and a half), so it's not a dramatic departure from what I was getting paid. So, when I go on big trips (such as the 1.5 month one I just got back from), I work 60-70 work weeks leading up to the trip to save up. If I instead got paid $20 an hour and didn't get tips, there's no way my employer would let me work that much overtime.
Originally Posted by
kipper
So, if one earns $7.05/hour after tips one evening, the restaurant must contribute $0.20/hour for that shift.
It's actually based on a week, not a shift. Which sucks worse. I've worked patio shifts at my current restaurant where it rained but had a chance to clear up so they didn't send us home. I walked out three hours later with $0 and the restaurant was under no obligation to pay me anything because my other shifts averaged it out.
Chris